Daily chart

Grocers' green

"HAVE you eaten yet?" is one of the most common greetings used in China, indicating the importance of food in the country's culture. Last year the Chinese spent a whopping 14% of GDP on groceries, so it is no big surprise that rapidly growing China became the world's biggest grocery market, overtaking America in yet another category, according to IGD, a food and grocery research firm. The French live up to their gastronomic reputation as one of the highest spenders on food, forking out nearly $5,000 a year per person (not including eating out), which as a share of income (11% of GDP) is the highest for any developed country in our chart. Indians are the lowest spenders on this list, handing over less than $1 a day each on groceries. By 2015, IGD forecasts the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will have pushed Japan out of the top five slots, leaving America as the only remaining rich country in the top five.

As already noted by other posters, this chart has some serious problems. A comparison per capita would probably have been more useful, as different country population sizes prevent effective comparison between countries. Comparison using PPP might also have been more useful than GDP, as food prices are substantially cheaper. In addition, the point made that rich countries have more disposable income to spend on more luxurious foods is valid.

I guess the main point is I don't feel like I gain much information staring at this chart. Per capita spend figures would have allowed comparison between countries.

well just one irrelevant question: who told you 'the chinese' will eat anything that moves? It's a big country and there'd be a huge difference in food if you look at different areas. Saying that is like saying 'All Europeans are blonde'.
but of course, just a irrelevant comment...ngood points in your comments.

Well, the problem is with the food distribution system in India. I read an NYT article last year about how inefficient and cumbersome the auctioning and storage systems are, and produce is often left to rot in warehouses. This pushes up food prices and forces India to import more food. By the way, I have no beef against India, so correct me if you feel that this characterization is inaccurate or not representative of India as a whole.

I think Voyager I contains a disk of greetings from Earthlings in many different languages and the one in Amoy (Min) said: Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.

On that same disk, there was a drawing of the Solar System and Earth's location. There was also a picture of a (naked) man and woman.

Isaac Asimov wrote a short science fiction story (I read it in Omni) that told of Voyager being sucked into a black hole/worm hole and ending up having six copies coming out the other end. One of them landed in a planet with almost depleted resources. The inhabitants of that planet saw the messages on the disk and decided to head for Earth upon the invitation to eat humans.

I totally agree, but you extrapolate. Adding overall domestic consumption food market would be interesting. Because we can't come to conclusion only from this chart.
And restaurants bills are certainly more expensive in Europe, but far less common. In PPP, I think it would be interesting if people spend more there than in China or US. Infrequent expensive food versus frequent cheap food.. (on avarage of course)

It’s only natural for developing economies like China to spend a higher percentage of GDP on food than the developed economy because their per capita GDP or disposable income and accordingly per capita consumption in dollar amount are much lower than that of developed economies.
but what TE says: ‘Indians are the lowest spenders on this list, handing over less than $1 a day each on groceries.’ is shocking even if that wasn't the news.
and I can’t help noticing an article on starvation problems in India that appeared on April 9th, 2012 WSJ saying that:
quote ‘But India is also a nation with about 360 million people living under the official poverty line – more than any other country – and starvation is all too real…......
Hunger doesn’t happen in isolation. Inevitably, our research exposed us to a range of economic and social ills in rural India and led us to incredible stories – tales of totally defunct public food and work programs, corruption, broken hand pumps for water, decrepit dirt roads, and caste exploitation’. unquote.
it is so sadly true and incredible, indeed inexcusable that india would spend close to 4% of its total GDP (about $1.78 T total) on buying weapons and being world’s largest arms importator, but think nothing of letting 360 million indians or 30% of Indian population living under poverty.
if this is not amount to genocide of massive order of indian people, granted mostly of lower castes of course, I don't know what is.

In western countries the higher a person climbs on the income ladder, the smaller percentage of their income they spend on food. In China the percentage is relatively constant and as a person moves higher they eat at more and more extravagantly; guzzling down bottles of baijiu costing thousands of RMB and devouring a wide array of exotic animals.

I think you have bungled this stat as well. The factoid is that there are more people in the WORLD that are obese than hungry, not Africa. The WHO says that 65% of people live in countries where being overweight kills more people than being underweight. Guess which continent most of that other 35% lives in?

Startling contrast between what the US consumes vs India. Also, having worked at a restaurant (in the USA) and seeing how profligate people here are with food, I wonder how much food is wasted/thrown away vs other nations.

I am an Indian from Hyderabad. I eat at home. I am a vegetarian. There are five persons, my parents, my wife, her sister and me. Our monthly expenditure is rupees 6000 on food which works out to be $24 per month per person, less than $1 per day.( Rs 50 = $1) Our daily intake is rice, wheat, vegetables, milk, fruits, pulses, etc. My yearly income is $14000 year which makes me locally upper middle class. My parents are are above 80 and quite healthy. The others are above 50 and quite healthy. This is real cost. If anyone has any doubts i can show them the break down.

I'm a Japanese. I think Japanese like to eat out, but it depends on their category. Single persons tend to eat outside much, but people who have their families wouldn't go frequently...at least around me.